USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > The Welsh of Columbus, Ohio; a study in adaptation and assimilation > Part 3
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The social life of the early Welshman centered about the church. To give the history of the church and its allied in- stitutions is to explain in large part the social control of a Welsh community.
An idea of the strength of the church in this representative Welsh community may be gained from a brief resume of the institutions of the church as they grew in the settlement. The Sunday School, (Yr Ysgol Sul),-Sunday School is a great institution with the Welsh. The text-book in the Welsh Sunday School is the Bible. Quarterlies and lesson leaves are not used. All the people of the Jackson and Gallia com- munity attended Sunday School, both young and old; men and women as well as children. The preparation of the Sun- day School lesson was the task for the week at home. And the Sunday School program was such as to encourage and stimulate home study.
The Sunday School Meeting, (Cyfarfod Ysgolion). This was held on week-days. It was held in turn at every church in the circuit. Representatives from each church attended the Sunday School Meeting, and reports from every school in the circuit were read there, giving record of attendance and work done. Papers were read by delegates on subjects per- taining to Sunday School work and Bible study. This stimu- lated active work in the home schools and they in turn en- couraged diligence in home instruction and study.
Annual Sunday School Association Meeting, (Cyfarfod Ysgolion Blynyddol). This annual meeting corresponded to what is now generally known as Sunday School Institute. It was always held in September. Here all the schools of the
1 See "Hanes Cymry America," p. 143; also "Sefydliadau Jackson a Gallia," p. 100; and "Cofiant Y Parch Robert Williams, Moriah, Ohio."
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THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
settlement gathered once a year. To the Sunday School bi- monthly meeting, mentioned above, delegates were sent from various schools, but to the Annual Association Meeting the whole community turned out bringing their picnic lunches with them and staying for the day, and an elaborate program was prepared for the occasion.
The Bible Society Auxiliary,-(Y Gymdeithas Feiblau). This society was organized in the settlement in 1845. The society held two meetings annually, in convenient centers ; one at Oak Hill and the other at Centerville. At these meet- ings reports of the Bible Society were read, and essays and addresses were delivered on important topics pertaining to the work of the Bible Society.
A Class in Theology, (Yr Ysgol Duwinyddol). There was for many years a large class in Oak Hill known as Yr Ysgol Duwinyddol, or School of Theology. It consisted of a leader who was a local minister, and any other persons of serious purpose who desired to attend. The enrollment in this school averaged from 30 to 40 persons. They met once every week.
The Presbytery Meeting, (Cyfarfod Dosparth). Presby- tery met quarterly and it lasted two days, beginning Tuesday evening and lasting until Thursday afternoon. One morning session was devoted to business and the rest of the time to listening to sermons by the ministers, two men preaching at each session.
The Synodical Meeting, (Y Gymanfa). The Welsh Synod of Ohio meets twice in the year, and once in every two years the Synod comes to the settlement. The Gymanfa used to be held at Moriah, the mother church, in former years, but in later years it has been held at Oak Hill, this place being more central. The Gymanfa was held in the week time, the public sessions were conducted in a grove near the church. Any- where from 3,000 to 4,000 people attended this great meeting of the church. The following is the program of the Gymanfa : Tuesday at 10:00 a. m. the Gymanfa convenes. This is its first business session, and at 2:00 p. m. the second business session. 7:00 p. m. public service, two sermons. Wednesday
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
10:00 a. m. business session; Wednesday 2:00 p. m. General Fellowship Meeting; 6:00 or 7:00 p. m. public service, two sermons; Thursday 10:00 a. m. public service, two sermons ; 2:00 p. m. public service, two sermons; 6:00 p. m. public ser- vice, two sermons. On Friday, post-Gymanfa sessions were held and the order was as follows: Friday 10:00 a. m. two sermons ; 2:00 p. m. two sermons. At the close of the Friday afternoon session the people dispersed and went home. But this was not all, for on the Sunday following all the visiting ministers to Synod preached on the circuit while the local preachers of the circuit had a day off.
Visiting Clergymen to the settlement, (Pregethwyr ar Dro). It frequently happened that a preacher from Wales would visit the settlement, or a prominent preacher from some other Gymanfa of America, and when he came he was given an itinerary through the settlement. He would preach in all the larger churches, and this would be generally in the week time, preaching at one church in the morning, at another at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and in a church in one of the villages in the evening. Farmers would drop all their work, even in mid harvest, to follow the preacher from church to church.
From the above list of church institutions and meetings, one may gain an idea of the highly organized condition of the settlement in a religious way and the prominent place given to preaching the gospel. They had their regular weekly prayer meetings and fellowship meetings in each church, and in the winter season they had singing schools and literary meetings in the different neighborhoods. We can readily see how the church kept the people busy and occupied preparing for these great functions.
GROWTH
The size of a Welsh colony may be fairly well estimated by the number of churches established, and the rapidity with which the colony grew may be conjectured from the rate at which new churches were erected in a given period. The de-
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THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
cline of the community as a distinctively Welsh community may be measured by the decline of the church as a Welsh church. This is particularly true of rural districts.
The first thing the Welsh pioneer provides for, after the immediate care of the home, is the religious welfare of the community life. In Paddy's Run a Congregational church was organized in 1803 with ten charter members, six of whom were Welsh. Paddy's Run was at no time a pure Welsh colony. From the very beginning the Welsh of this commu- nity mingled with people of other nationalities. Its Welsh population numbered about 500 to 600 in its most flourishing period, from 1830 to 1850. During that time the church was practically a Welsh church with some English preaching. It was a Congregational Church because the Welsh who came there from Montgomeryshire were Congregationalists.
The pioneers of the Welsh Hills were Baptists. They at one time belonged to the Union Church1 at Ebensburg, Penn- sylvania. The controlling spirit of that church, the Rev. Morgan Rees, was a Baptist, and the whole church was very soon influenced by his persuasion. The result was that when the Welsh settled in Licking County the church was organized as a Baptist church in 1808. No less than thirty of the earli- est communicants in this church had previously been members of the Union Church in Ebensburg. 1195061
In the Jackson and Gallia settlement the first families who came there in 1818 worshipped with the Methodist Episco- palians in a nearby community. But when the new tide of Welsh immigration arose in 1834 the Welsh began to hold their own religious meetings, and to conduct them in their own language. The prevailing religious persuasion of the Cardiganshire Welsh is Calvinistic Methodist, hence the pre- vailing church in this settlement is Calvinistic Methodist. In 1836 the inhabitants of the Jackson and Gallia colony erected their first church. So tremendous was the influx of Welsh from Cardiganshire that churches began to spring up year by
1 See "The Cambrian" for August 1907, p. 346.
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
year in other neighborhoods in every direction from the mother church.
The writer knows of no better way to illustrate this fact of rapid growth than by enumerating the churches of Jackson and Gallia and giving the date of their organization, and thereby endeavor to show the rapidity with which the Welsh immigrants came into the different neighborhoods of the set- tlement. The churches of the Calvinistic Methodist denom- ination run as follows :- Moriah, the mother church, was or- ganized in 1835; Horeb, 1838; Centerville, 1840; Bethel, 1841; Soar, 1841; Sardis, 1843; Bethania, 1847; Tabor, 1848; Oak Hill, 1851; Bethseda, 1856; Salem, 1862; Penuel, 1870; Jackson, 1880. While the Calvinistic Methodists were busy organizing churches, other denominations were likewise en- gaged though in point of number and strength they were eclipsed by the Calvinistic Methodists. The Congregational- ists during this period built six or seven churches. The first of the Congregational churches was built at Oak Hill in 1840. The Baptists had four churches and the Wesleyans one. Thus it appears that some 24 or 25 churches were built by the Welsh of this settlement. Aside from these churches many Welsh Sunday Schools were organized in neighborhoods where churches did not exist.
In Gomer, Allen County, the first church was built in 1845. This was a Congregational church. The Welsh colony grew in numbers and has kept its Congregational spirit throughout. Gomer and its environs constitute the stronghold of Welsh Congregationalism in Ohio. Besides the Gomer church there were two or three other Welsh congregational churches in the Gomer settlement.
In Venedocia, Vanwert County, the three families who came there in 1848, held religious worship the first Sunday after their arrival. They worshipped in their cabins, princi- pally at Bebb's, until 1853 when their first church was built. The church in this settlement is Calvinistic Methodist. Many who came into this neighborhood were Congregationalists from
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THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
Llanbrynmair, North Wales, but the prevailing tendency was Calvinistic Methodist and that persuasion controlled. There were at one time four churches in this group, all of which were Calvinistic Methodist, though one of them was organized as a Union Church of Welsh Congregationalists and Calvinis- tic Methodists, but under the control of the Calvinists. One of the four churches has since been abandoned. The immi- gration on the part of the Welsh from Jackson and Gallia Counties in the '60s helped to make Venedocia Calvinistic Methodist.
We have then the following four distinct Welsh settle- ments in Ohio for which Paddy's Run is in some way respon- sible : the Welsh Hills settlement in Licking County the popu- lation of which in its strongest period was about 400 or 500, with a Baptist church as the prevailing type of religious per- suasion, though other denominations organized their churches later; the Jackson and Gallia settlement with a population of from 5,000 to 6,000, and its prevailing religious denomination is Calvinistic Methodist; the Gomer settlement with a popu- lation of about 1,000 or 1,500 and the Congregational church in control; the Venedocia settlement in Vanwert County with a population similar to that of Gomer, or larger, and the church in power there is Calvinistic Methodist.
The Radnor settlement numbered about 600 to 800 and its first church was Congregational though other denominations erected their churches later.
All these settlements have had their influence in con- tributing to the make-up of the Welsh of Columbus, Ohio, as we shall have occasion to observe later. Radnor and the Welsh Hills were early sources of the Welsh of Columbus, and the Jackson and Gallia settlement along with Venedocia have given much to Columbus in later years.
Each of these Welsh settlements has reached its summit as a flourishing community of the Welsh type, and is now descending the hill on the other side. The communities are rapidly becoming assimilated into the great American people.
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
In Paddy's Run, the Welsh Hills, and Radnor the Welsh language has passed out of use in the church and home. In Jackson and Gallia Counties the language is still in use but is rapidly being supplanted by the English. In Gomer the change is rapidly taking place and in Venedocia as well, though the Welsh tongue prevails as yet in the latter in the church service.
The descendants of the early Welsh families still live in these communities, scores of them, and many of them are well- to-do farmers. The land in Paddy's Run is worth from $75.00 to $125.00 per acre and in the Welsh Hills it is about the same. In Radnor, Gomer, and Venedocia farms are worth anywhere from $150.00 to $250.00 per acre. The descendants of the pioneers in the Jackson and Gallia settlement have not fared so well. The land there has not increased in value, as it has in the other settlements, after improvement. Some of the land is worth only from $6.00 to $10.00 per acre today, though many of the children of the early settlers are now well-to-do owing to interests in other enterprises such as coal mines, iron furnaces,1 and the clay-brick industry. But the large majori- ty of them are on the farms.
1 See "The Cambrian" for August 1891, p. 225.
CHAPTER III.
THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS The Location and Early History of Columbus
Columbus, the capital of Ohio and the seat of Franklin County, is situated near the geographical center of the State on the banks of the Scioto River, its business portion being just where the Olentangy River empties into the Scioto. The site of Columbus was at one time occupied by the Wyandot and other Indian tribes.
The site was selected for the capital of Ohio by the legis- lature in 1812, partly as the result of the efforts of four citi- zens of Franklinton who had "formed a company to establish the State Capital on the high banks of the Scioto River oppo- site Franklinton." Columbus thus got its existence by the legislative act creating a home for the Capitol of Ohio on a site which was then practically an unbroken forest.
The town was laid out in the spring of 1812, and on the 18th of June in the same year the first land was sold at pub- lic sale. In 1815 the first census was taken and the population at that time was 700. In 1816 the town was incorporated as the borough of Columbus; in 1824 Columbus was made the seat of Franklin County, and it was incorporated as a city in 1834.
Immediately after the town had been laid out improve- ments were begun and streets were platted. In 1825 the Ohio Canal, from Cleveland on Lake Erie to Portsmouth on the Ohio River, was commenced, and was completed in 1838. The Columbus "feeder" from Columbus to Lockburne, a distance of eleven miles, was completed in 1831. This gave Columbus water communication with Lake Erie and the Ohio River. In 1836 the National Road from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Indianapolis, Indiana, passed through Columbus. The San- duskey turnpike, extending north from Columbus to San-
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
duskey on Lake Erie, and other roads were in process of con- struction during this period all of which entered this mecca in the center of the State of Ohio. In 1841 the first railroad in Ohio was begun and in 1850 the first train steamed into Columbus over what was then the Columbus and Xenia Rail- road.1
After the town had been laid out and improvements be- gun Ohio's Capital was destined to grow. The building of the State institutions meant that here was employment for men engaged in many forms of labor, and thither they came in large numbers. These great institutions of the State gave employment to hundreds of men as well as did the canal, the public highways and the railroads of the same period, to say nothing of other great building projects of a public and pri- vate nature during that time.
Contemporary with the rise of the great State institutions was the development of industries in Columbus. From its very location, in the center of a great industrial State and region, and its proximity to the great coal fields of Ohio, Columbus was destined to become an important industrial center. The growth of industry meant the rise of commerce. And presently, from 1850 on, we find railroad systems de- veloping in central Ohio until today there are about 15 rail- roads which enter the city. An idea of the rapid growth of Columbus may be obtained from a glance at Table I. below. The table after the first two figures is taken from the United States Census Report for 1910.
TABLE I.
General Population from 1815 to 1910
1815
700
1820
1,400
1830.
2,435
1840
6,048
1850
17,882
1860
18,554
1 See
"Historical Collections of Ohio" Vol. I. Chapter on Franklin County.
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THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS
1870.
31,247
1880.
51,647
1890
88,150
1900.
. 125,560
1910
181,511
We have gone sufficiently into the investigation of the growth of Columbus to show that at a very early day it pre- sented great attractions to immigrants especially those of the artisan or skilled labor class. We are concerned here primar- ily, not with the growth of Columbus as such, but particularly with a certain group of immigrants who came to the city, viz. the Welsh who came to Columbus.
Just how early in the history of Columbus the Welsh en- tered is impossible to ascertain. But that Welsh legislators had a part in selecting the site of Columbus and in giving it a name is evident. Resolutions in the legislature referring to the site and the name were offered by two men by the names of Edwards and Evans. And when the final vote was taken on these resolutions six Welsh names appear on the roll call, viz. for the affirmative are the names of Evans, Edwards, T. Morris and D. Morris; on the negative side the names of J. Jones and T. G. Jones. Among the 17 citizens who had set- tled in Columbus as early as 1813 one name appears which may be that of a Welshman, viz. Jarvis.1
LOCATION ADVANTAGEOUS TO THE WELSH
We have no record that the Welsh came to Columbus as pioneer settlers as we found them in the settlements of Paddy's Run, the Welsh Hills, "Jackson and Gallia," and the other settlements studied in Chapter II. In fact we know next to nothing concerning the Welsh in Columbus previous to 1820.
The position of Columbus, however, with reference to two Welsh settlements in particular was very advantageous, viz. the Welsh Hills in Licking County and the Radnor settlement in Delaware County. These two regions had been settled by
1 See "Historical Collections of Ohio" Vol. I., article by E. O. Randall, p. 618 sq .; also "Some Facts with Reference to the Welsh of Columbus, Ohio from its Earliest Times up to 1860,"' p. 5.
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
the Welsh more than a decade before Columbus came into existence. The Welsh Hills settlement was about 30 or 35 miles to the East and a little northeast of Columbus, and the Radnor settlement was about the same distance to the North. It is most natural that the young men who grew up in these settlements, as demand for workmen increased in Columbus, should turn to Columbus for employment and that their friends and countrymen who migrated from Wales should fol- low them in their search for work in the rapidly growing city. The Welsh people of these two communities were in constant communication with friends and relatives in Wales and they informed them of the great opportunities offered to workmen in Ohio's Capital.
PERIODS OF WELSH MIGRATION
While we have no definite trace of Welsh immigration to Columbus previous to 1820, from that time on, until the pres- ent day, Welsh immigration in one form or another has con- tinued. Welsh migration to Columbus falls naturally into three periods, viz: from 1820 to 1860; from 1860 to 1885; from 1885 to the present time. The first period may be de- signated as the Period of Foreign Welsh Immigration to Co- lumbus. The second period, marks the decline of foreign Welsh immigration and a gradual rise of immigration on the part of the Welsh from local communities in the States, especially from communities in Ohio. The third period marks the cessation of foreign Welsh immigration and the rapid growth of immigration from local settlements in Ohio.
THE FIRST PERIOD
The first period (1820-1860) may again be subdivided in- to two smaller periods, viz. from 1820 to 1840; and from 1840 to 1860. From 1820 to 1840, the immigration to Columbus was more or less indirect and was due to the influence of the Welsh Hills and Radnor settlements. People would come from Wales to join their friends and relatives in these colonies and in time would drift into Columbus to find employment.
As early as 1822 a man by the name of Ebenezer Thomas
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THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS
in company with others owned and operated a woolen mill for carding, spinning and weaving. In the same year Thomas Cadwallader, John O. Richards and Morgan Powell came to Columbus. By the year 1824 a sufficient number of Welsh people had arrived to constitute a church, when a Welsh Bap- tist church was organized.1 The influence of the Welsh Hills settlement may be seen here, for they were Baptists, and the first preacher to the new society at Columbus was a Rev. O. Owens from Granville, Ohio.
EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AGITATED IN WALES
Beginning with 1840 and continuing until within a few years of the Civil War we find a great increase of direct im- migration from Wales to Columbus. They came from Mont- gomeryshire in North Wales. This was the county from which Ezekiel Hughes and Edward Bebb had come with their com- pany of Welsh immigrants in 1795; conditions in Wales were oppressive at that time and up to the middle of the 19th cen- tury had not improved but rather had grown worse.
Samuel Roberts, a cousin to Governor Bebb, was a Congre- gational preacher of great power. His influence in that day, (the '40s and '50s), was mighty with the Welsh of Montgom- eryshire and throughout Wales. He took upon himself to champion the cause of the poor tenant farmer of his parish in Montgomeryshire and of the country round about Llanbryn- mair. He pled with the landlords and stewards for fair play. Having done all he could in this way, but without re- sult he began to attack them and to denounce landlordism bitterly. His efforts to change things in Wales were futile, but he did accomplish something definite. He succeeded in arousing a spirit of unrest and dissatisfaction on the part of the Welsh tenant farmer, with the result that scores and hundreds of the Montgomeryshire Welsh emigrated to Ameri- ca in the two decades from 1840 to 1860. A great many of these came directly to Columbus, while scores also came into Gomer and Venedocia, and hundreds settled in Western States.
1 See "Some Facts with Reference to the Welsh of Columbus, &c." p. 8 sq.
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
The following article published in "Y Cronicl," a Welsh periodical, for July 1852, will serve to illustrate the spirit of Rev. Samuel Roberts' agitation and his method of work.1
"The greater part of the agricultural communities of the Principality has suffered a great deal of insult and of mal- treatment. The landlords and stewards have for many years oppressed their most faithful tenants, and it is very difficult to arouse them to a sense of the unfairness and foolishness, and the consequent loss to themselves, of their oppressive con- duct. They would do well to study the following short chap- ter of "Facts Concerning Emigration."
"1. This morning over 70 people, most of them young and in the flower of life, left Llanbrynmair for America.
2. A larger number than that left a neighboring com- munity just recently.
3. There are several families now arranging their affairs so as to be prepared to leave in the Autumn or early Spring
4. Five or six such large companies, to say nothing of lesser groups, have left this neighborhood within a few years.
5. Similar groups are leaving other communities, and they are increasing all the while.
6. The old families would not leave the land of their fathers if there was any hope of earning a living at home.
7. Hundreds of those who left this community in recent years are doing well in America. And they are continually not only urging their friends to follow them, but they are ready to send aid to their poor relatives to pay their transpor- tation.
8. Within two months the writer has received £80 from a young workman in America toward paying the passage of some of those who left here this very morning.
9. The inducements to emigrate are rapidly increasing. Five pounds is almost enough to pay the way of a strong young man, or a rosy cheeked young woman, from the bare
1 See "Cofiant Y Tri Brawd o Lanbrynmair a Conwy," p. 50 sq. where this article is quoted.
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THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS
and fruitless slopes Plimlimmon and Cader Idris to the wealthy valleys of Ohio and Missouri.
10. The increase in traveling facilities together with the certainty of higher wages, better board, etc. are a great induce- ment to young people, who are strong and ambitious, to emi- grate from this land of poverty and oppression to a country where the rights of labor and religion are given more protec- tion and fair play than they are receiving here.
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